Teacher, writer, performer and Mum, Wendy Horikoshi has lived, breathed and worked in Japan for a little over 13 years. Taking a left turn from tarting up medical journals and wedding speeches, she explores the traffic hazards that gaijin present as they walk the streets of Tokyo with their big noses, eyes and boobs.
Living in Tokyo, the first thing that strikes you as a foreigner, is you stand out. This is a very homogeneous culture. One race, one religion, one language. As a gaijin, you get looked at intently where ever you go. Really intently. Like people are trying to memorize your face so they can tell the cops about it later.
I live in a town that has about 80% of it’s people over the age of 65. They are a special breed of Stare Bears, right here in Kodaira. Every day, I have little old ladies point at me and say “Oooo, what a big nose you have!” and “Oooo look at your great big eyes”. On the odd occasion, they will come up and goose me on the boob, and comment on my “gorgeous bosom”. It gets more bizarre. I am often guilty of the crime “Walking While Gaijin”.
First summer I was here, it was hellishly hot, and over 90% humidity every day. I stripped down to cut off jeans, and a white T-shirt to stroll out to the shops. I was waiting to cross the road, and I saw an old man on a bicycle, stare at me so hard, he almost turned backwards, trying to keep me in his line of sight. Not looking where he was going, he crashed into a hedge, and I raced over the road to see if he was OK. I pulled him out of the bushes, and instead of “Thank you” I got “Ookii Oppai, ne!” (Look what big boobs you have).
This was not to be an isolated event.
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